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As a business owner, you’ll need to check your inbox for messages at some point. You will receive marketing emails from vendors and companies that want to market their products or services to you.
But, it is important to be able to block these messages so that you do not get distracted or overwhelmed.
Blocking messages can easily be done in Gmail. But, doing this outside of Google is much more difficult. Thankfully, there are ways to do this!
There are several free apps and tools that allow you to block individual senders, specific email addresses, or entire domains. This article will discuss three such blocking strategies along with some tips on how to use them.
Blockmarketing.org is an excellent source for information about spam blockers and how to use various ones. Their website contains lots of helpful tips and tricks as well as reviews of different spam blockers. They also have a lot of information about how to manage your email account (something we discussed earlier).
Google does a good job of offering basic spam blocking features through its “Proxies” feature. However, if you really wanted all of the advanced settings, like blocking domain extensions, you would need to go beyond what they offer.
Luckily, there are other great spam blocker apps that give you access to all of the same features! The best part is that most of them are free to try out before buying.
There are two main ways to block marketing emails. You can either use an external service that allows you to do this, or build your own system in-house.
External services like IBlockMyEmails and EmailWolf offer users tools to be able to disable certain types of messages (for example, it can tell if an email is for sale or not). This removes the need to create filters yourself as they take care of this for you.
By blocking these message types, you will also reduce your exposure to advertisements and calls to action. This helps limit potential advertising fatigue and decreases negative emotions such as anxiety and frustration.
You can also use IBlockMyEmails to be able to mark specific senders as spam. By doing this, you stop receiving further communication from them.
In-house solutions are much more personal than using an outside tool. You get to decide which brands you want to block, and why!
There are many ways to achieve this – creating a list of companies you don’t want to receive communications from, adding people to your contact book who won’t respond to you, etc.
Whatever method you choose, just make sure you’re not too hard about it! Blocking sends and recipients is very common, so don’t hurt their feelings by being overly aggressive.
The next step in blocking marketing emails is establishing content filters or lists of messages that you will block, which can be done via software or through your browser settings.
Content filter tools allow you to add specific email addresses or domains to a list of non-contact information. This then allows those messages to be blocked automatically without having to select each one individually.
Some good content filtering softwares are Norton Ghost, Email Protection for Chrome, and PiXEL Networks Privacy Guard. All three have usernames and password features, ease of use, and excellent reviews. They are all very affordable as well!
In addition to these, there are some easy ways to prevent certain types of marketers from contacting you. For example, you can choose not to accept invitations to webinars or seminars if you are already aware of their marketability.
You can also remain anonymous by using an online anonymity service like Google Authenticator or Free Online Anonymous VPNs. These services create a new random string every 30 minutes, making it impossible to identify who uses them.
The best way to block most marketing emails is by using the Do Not Email lists that each company offers. These are typically free to use, and you can add just as many providers as you want!
Some of the biggest email services offer their own do not email lists that you can use to exclude companies from sending promotional messages to you. For example, Google gives you this option in Gmail.
You can also make it easy for yourself by creating your own exclusion lists in other email apps like Yahoo or Outlook. This will be very helpful if you are more focused on another app than one that has the feature built-in.
Another good tip is to create separate accounts for different types of businesses so you can better monitor which ones you want to keep and which ones you want to drop.
It is not hard to create a personal email account if you are careful about what information you include in your email addresses. You can use Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Outlook as your mail server and domain.
You do not have to give out too much identifying info like your full name or phone number, just make sure you pick an easy to remember username that does not include any personal details.
For example, it should be short and simple, such as ‘Nathan’ or something along those lines. Make sure there are no characters that look like words so people cannot spam Google looking for your password!
Most users also opt to add a little bit of extra detail to their accounts such as their birthdate or house number so others cannot impersonate them. This helps prevent spam because only recipients who have verified the account will receive messages through it.
You get this level of protection with free apps like gmail and yahoo!.
Another way to block unsolicited emails is to create an account at the BBB so you can easily view your email address list. You can also add or remove addresses from this list if you want, but remember that doing either of these will reduce their efficacy as marketing tools!
The BBB offers several ways to opt out of receiving messages via email, phone calls, and text messages. One of the easiest ways to do this is by creating an account.
Once you have this done, you can choose to remain anonymous or use your own personal information. Either one works just fine!
You should go into this anonymous mode for now until you are more comfortable letting people see your business info. Once you are able to let other people view less about yourself, then you can switch back to using your real name.
Let’s say you find yourself overwhelmed by all of the marketing emails in your inbox. You could always choose to ignore them, but that would probably only make it worse!
Instead of letting the advertisers bombard you with messages, you can opt out by changing how you receive email notifications.
You can also be more selective about which types of messages you want to see, or even completely block specific brands from sending you content.
This way, you will cut down on unneeded junk mail, and you will still get the important updates and information you desire.
There are several ways to do this- you can use software, mobile apps, or just create your own rules. It depends on what is most comfortable for you.
Some people feel more motivated when they get an incentive to take action, so some companies send periodic reminders via email or SMS (text message). This is called a “reminder blast” or a “promo reminder.”
Whatever you call them, these are not bad things at all! They can help you stay focused on your goals and keep you moving towards those dreams.
How to Block Email Messages
I'll give you tips here on three different ways to manage your incoming email effectively.
By managing your Inbox well, you will spend less time blocking and responding to messages, and more time doing other things.
As mentioned before, you can always choose to opt out of receiving emails from a company for their services or products. If you find that annoying, then do not hesitate to let them know!
Some companies will ask if you are still comfortable with us sending you promotional information after you asked to be removed earlier. Simply saying yes or no does not really matter- they will send marketing messages anyway.
If there is one thing we have learned it is that corporations exist to make money, so unless you are very invested in their product/service, why would they care what you think?
By letting companies know about your preferences, you help prevent fraudulent business practices and advertisements that may feel invasive or irrelevant to you. It also gives other people a chance to learn more about the organization and whether or not they experience the same benefits as you.
Another way to block marketing emails is by using an app that allows you to create blocks of time for different tasks. You can use this app to avoid getting distracted and bombarded with advertisements while you are doing something else.
There are many apps that offer this feature, but I have found one that works best for me. My favorite tool for this is called Can’t Stop Channeling!
I will sometimes set my phone up in such a way that I cannot access certain applications or websites (examples: no Facebook, no YouTube). With this app, you can do it at a much more detailed level than just limiting access to specific sites or apps!
You can choose which channels you want to be able to access (social media, messaging apps, etc.) and how long you want to keep them blocked for. After the channel passes its block period, it automatically removes the channel from your list so you never accidentally visit it.
